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Extreme Dating
Warner Bros. // R // February 7, 2006
List Price: $19.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie
While they rarely burn up the box-office, romantic comedies remain a very popular genre. This despite the fact that these films haven't really evolved over the years. Typically, they portray something like, "boy meets girl, boy loses girls, boy's eccentric friend says something weird, etc." It's that rare rom-com, such as There's Something About Mary, that brings something new to the screen. The newly released film Extreme Dating does manage to bring a new twist to the romantic-comedy. However, while it was packing this new idea, it clearly didn't have room for interesting characters or any laughs.
Extreme Dating focuses on four friends who work for an advertising agency. Daniel (Devon Sawa), is an everyman who has a crush on Lindsay (Amanda Detmer), a hyper-active young woman who many see as bossy. Troy (Andrew Keegan) is a "pretty boy" who feels that women only use him for sex. And Packer (Ian Virgo), is underwritten and we only know that he's British. The firm is approached by mogul Marshall Jackson (Meatloaf) to create a new image for his ski resort. Upon a visit to the resort for research, Packer is involved in a skiing accident with a woman and they are immediately attracted to one another. This gives Daniel, Lindsay, and Packer an idea; extreme dating. That is, romantic situations which grow out of dangerous or risky experiences.
They soon begin to test this theory on one another. Troy admits that he's noticed a woman at the bank that he'd like to meet. So, Lindsay and Daniel arrange for a fake kidnapping so that Troy and this woman, Amy (Jamie-Lynn Sigler). However, they didn't do a very thorough background on the kidnappers and soon the group finds themselves involved in a very extreme situation that goes far beyond dating.
In 2002, Devon Sawa appeared in a movie entitled Extreme Ops, which, to put it mildly, wasn't a very good movie. So, one would think that he would learn to avoid any script with "extreme" in the title. Unfortunately, he didn't learn his lesson and now we must suffer along with him through this witless movie. (He needs to get back to making films such as Final Destination or Idle Hands.)
The "extreme dating" concept in Extreme Dating is actually an interesting angle. As we learned while watching Speed, romance can blossom in extreme situations. (And that movie also taught us that those relationships never last.) Extreme Dating could have easily explored this angle and played it for laughs by examining several couples who explore this tactic. Instead, the movie chooses to focus most of its attention on one extreme date. This presents a very oddly paced film, as what would typically be the third act in a movie begins around the 27-minute mark and goes on for nearly an hour. Thus, Extreme Dating is a one-note movie. Whereas the movie could have explored the many facets of "extreme dating", we get one long date.
And if that doesn't sound so bad, allow me to illuminate this point: that one date is not extreme, funny, or interesting. The fake kidnapping is drawn out longer than seemingly possible and the movie becomes incredibly repetitive and boring. The writer seems to have no idea where to take the story and the actors look bored. The movie wants to be a romantic comedy with a heist angle, and none of it works. The movie also becomes oddly edited at this point, as it tries to cut back-and-forth between three storylines, each duller than the last. Romantic comedies are usually consider good date movies. Extreme Dating should be your choice only if you had no intention of watching a movie in the first place.
Video
Extreme Dating crashes onto DVD courtesy of Warner Home Video. The film has been letterboxed at 1.85:1 and the transfer is enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs. The picture is sharp, but oddly not very clear. The image is visibly grainy and muddy as well. It's unusual to see a fairly recent film look this way on DVD. The picture is also slightly dark at times. On the plus side, the colors look good, as the film nicely mixes pastels with darker colors. Edge enhancement is kept to a minimum, but there were some artifacting issues.
Audio
The DVD carries a serviceable Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects with no noticeable hissing or distortion. The stereo effects are conspicuously good. Surround sound action kicks in during musical cues and for the skiing scenes. Subwoofer effects are kept to a minimum and are clearly absent at times.
Extras
For a direct-to-video release, Extreme Dating has a fair number of extras. Director Lorena David, producer Mark Roberts, and actress Amanda Detmer provide an audio commentary for the film. This trio speaks throughout the film, giving particulars about the production of the film. They talk about the casting, the story, the actors, and the locations for the film. They give specific anecdotes about what it was like to work with Meatloaf and how the cast was assembled. "Extreme Filmmaking: Behind the Scenes of Extreme Dating" is a featurette which has been divided into six short chapters, including "Story" (3 minutes), "Casting" (3 minutes), "Characters" (4 minutes), "Scenes" (2 minutes), "Stunts" (1 minute), and "Filmmaking" (2 minutes). These segments include comments from the cast and crew, as well as behind-the-scenes footage and clips from the film. I'm not sure why this wasn't assembled into one 15 minute featurette. On the whole, the information given here is fairly superficial. The extras are rounded out by a "Blooper Reel" (6 minutes) and a "Trailer", which is presented full-frame.
As I've aged (saying "matured" would be an inaccuracy), I've grown to like romantic-comedies and count some amongst my favorite films. However, I have no patience for entries in this genre which offer neither romance or comedy. Despite the fact that it tries to be different, Extreme Dating is just extremely bad.
While they rarely burn up the box-office, romantic comedies remain a very popular genre. This despite the fact that these films haven't really evolved over the years. Typically, they portray something like, "boy meets girl, boy loses girls, boy's eccentric friend says something weird, etc." It's that rare rom-com, such as There's Something About Mary, that brings something new to the screen. The newly released film Extreme Dating does manage to bring a new twist to the romantic-comedy. However, while it was packing this new idea, it clearly didn't have room for interesting characters or any laughs.
Extreme Dating focuses on four friends who work for an advertising agency. Daniel (Devon Sawa), is an everyman who has a crush on Lindsay (Amanda Detmer), a hyper-active young woman who many see as bossy. Troy (Andrew Keegan) is a "pretty boy" who feels that women only use him for sex. And Packer (Ian Virgo), is underwritten and we only know that he's British. The firm is approached by mogul Marshall Jackson (Meatloaf) to create a new image for his ski resort. Upon a visit to the resort for research, Packer is involved in a skiing accident with a woman and they are immediately attracted to one another. This gives Daniel, Lindsay, and Packer an idea; extreme dating. That is, romantic situations which grow out of dangerous or risky experiences.
They soon begin to test this theory on one another. Troy admits that he's noticed a woman at the bank that he'd like to meet. So, Lindsay and Daniel arrange for a fake kidnapping so that Troy and this woman, Amy (Jamie-Lynn Sigler). However, they didn't do a very thorough background on the kidnappers and soon the group finds themselves involved in a very extreme situation that goes far beyond dating.
In 2002, Devon Sawa appeared in a movie entitled Extreme Ops, which, to put it mildly, wasn't a very good movie. So, one would think that he would learn to avoid any script with "extreme" in the title. Unfortunately, he didn't learn his lesson and now we must suffer along with him through this witless movie. (He needs to get back to making films such as Final Destination or Idle Hands.)
The "extreme dating" concept in Extreme Dating is actually an interesting angle. As we learned while watching Speed, romance can blossom in extreme situations. (And that movie also taught us that those relationships never last.) Extreme Dating could have easily explored this angle and played it for laughs by examining several couples who explore this tactic. Instead, the movie chooses to focus most of its attention on one extreme date. This presents a very oddly paced film, as what would typically be the third act in a movie begins around the 27-minute mark and goes on for nearly an hour. Thus, Extreme Dating is a one-note movie. Whereas the movie could have explored the many facets of "extreme dating", we get one long date.
And if that doesn't sound so bad, allow me to illuminate this point: that one date is not extreme, funny, or interesting. The fake kidnapping is drawn out longer than seemingly possible and the movie becomes incredibly repetitive and boring. The writer seems to have no idea where to take the story and the actors look bored. The movie wants to be a romantic comedy with a heist angle, and none of it works. The movie also becomes oddly edited at this point, as it tries to cut back-and-forth between three storylines, each duller than the last. Romantic comedies are usually consider good date movies. Extreme Dating should be your choice only if you had no intention of watching a movie in the first place.
Video
Extreme Dating crashes onto DVD courtesy of Warner Home Video. The film has been letterboxed at 1.85:1 and the transfer is enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs. The picture is sharp, but oddly not very clear. The image is visibly grainy and muddy as well. It's unusual to see a fairly recent film look this way on DVD. The picture is also slightly dark at times. On the plus side, the colors look good, as the film nicely mixes pastels with darker colors. Edge enhancement is kept to a minimum, but there were some artifacting issues.
Audio
The DVD carries a serviceable Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects with no noticeable hissing or distortion. The stereo effects are conspicuously good. Surround sound action kicks in during musical cues and for the skiing scenes. Subwoofer effects are kept to a minimum and are clearly absent at times.
Extras
For a direct-to-video release, Extreme Dating has a fair number of extras. Director Lorena David, producer Mark Roberts, and actress Amanda Detmer provide an audio commentary for the film. This trio speaks throughout the film, giving particulars about the production of the film. They talk about the casting, the story, the actors, and the locations for the film. They give specific anecdotes about what it was like to work with Meatloaf and how the cast was assembled. "Extreme Filmmaking: Behind the Scenes of Extreme Dating" is a featurette which has been divided into six short chapters, including "Story" (3 minutes), "Casting" (3 minutes), "Characters" (4 minutes), "Scenes" (2 minutes), "Stunts" (1 minute), and "Filmmaking" (2 minutes). These segments include comments from the cast and crew, as well as behind-the-scenes footage and clips from the film. I'm not sure why this wasn't assembled into one 15 minute featurette. On the whole, the information given here is fairly superficial. The extras are rounded out by a "Blooper Reel" (6 minutes) and a "Trailer", which is presented full-frame.
As I've aged (saying "matured" would be an inaccuracy), I've grown to like romantic-comedies and count some amongst my favorite films. However, I have no patience for entries in this genre which offer neither romance or comedy. Despite the fact that it tries to be different, Extreme Dating is just extremely bad.
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